Emily Dickinson Lexicon

box (-es), n. [OE < L. bux-us, box-tree.]

1. Drawer; square container; rectangular receptacle; keeper of mementos; small treasury made of wood or stone; [fig.] memory; record; heart; mental storage place; repository of affection; (see Luke 7:37).
2. Casket; coffin; long wooden chest for burial of the dead; [fig.] weight; burden of pain; load of grief.
3. Theater compartment; seat in a play-house; small room for people attending a performance; [fig.] human body; life span.

boy (-s, -'s), n. [ME 'knave,' 'young gentleman'.]

1. Youngster; minor; child; kid; nestling; playful creature; [fig.] mortal; human being.
2. Delinquent; bully; ruffian; roughneck; juvenile offender; rowdy person.
3. Son; male offspring; (see Genesis 25:27); [fig.] young soldier.
4. Male persona; [fig.] disciple; follower; apprentice.
5. Fellow; guy; young man; (see Zechariah 8:5); [fig.] sunset cloud; beam of light.
6. Phrase. “School Boy”: lad; male student; child from age 6 to 12; one below the age of puberty.

boyish, adj.

Young; fresh; youthful; puerile; adolescent; teenaged; [fig.] tender; vulnerable; inexperienced.

brace (-d), v. [OFr < L. brachium, arm.]

Surround; encircle; bind; besiege; hem in; draw near; secure closely; take over; maintain control; hold ground; [fig.] depress; smother.

brag, v. [uncertain etymology; NW says < Welsh bragiaw, swell, shoot up.]

Boast; bluster; vaunt; swagger; show off; sound loudly; display action pridefully; [fig.] flood; run over; spring forth from the earth.

braid, v. [OE.]

Weave; plait; intertwine; twist in and out; make one from three strands; [fig.] brush; coif; smooth; groom; put into place.

brain, n. [OE; compare Gk. 'forehead'.]

1. Imagination; cognition; sensory perception; cognition; center of emotion.
2. Cerebrum and cerebellum; master organ of the body; terminus of the central nervous system; soft viscus mass within the skull; center that enables various human functions, abilities, capacities, connections, and sensations.
3. Memory; mind; remembrance; recollection; mental awareness.
4. Intelligence; understanding; consciousness; center of thought; seat of the soul.
5. Intellect; reason; logical capacity.
6. Nucleus; core; kernel.

brake, n. [ME < Middle Low German 'broken tree branches'.]

1. Grass; field; brush; [fig.] Eden; paradise.
2. Undergrowth; bushes; copse; fern plants; overgrown thicket; garden groundcover; clump of shrubs.

brake, v. [see break, v.; archaic form of past tense “broke.”]

Interrupt; extinguish; finish; cut off; end prematurely; bring to a temporary close; [word play] harrow; crush like flax; knead like bread dough; [transferred passive]: “His Life was broken”; submit to violence at the hands of others; [fig.] sacrifice; give up; split into pieces; divide into portions to share with others; offer a portion of bread as in the sacrament ordinance (see Matthew 26:26 “Jesus took bread and blessed it, and brake”).

bramble, n. [OE.]

Nettle; blackberry patch; thorn bush; scratchy shrubs; plot of prickly plants; (see Isaiah 34:13).